Sustainable practices are a key component to almost every aspect of our lives. “Going Green” is incorporated into everything from food to buildings to cars. The civil engineering community is also responsible for becoming more sustainable in its practices, and this should include the bridges that are built.
There have been many advances in bridge technology over the last hundred years, but sustainable bridge design is still a new and different area of focus. There have been minimal attempts to make bridges more sustainable through material improvements and design enhancements, but to be holistically sustainable in terms of the environment, the people and the economics, further advancements are still needed.
During this research, programs were created based on fuzzy logic to help users assess the overall sustainability of a bridge design. The bridges at the focus of this research were new or major rehabilitation (reconstruction) bridge projects that cross a waterway with one or two lanes of traffic in either direction located in Columbus, Ohio. In total five programs were created for assessment, each based on a unique fuzzy logic model. The programs require different inputs from a user versed in sustainable bridge design practices who is mildly familiar with fuzzy logic principles. All five of the programs produce an output relating to a general sustainability rating so they can be compared and contrasted to determine the most appropriate model.
Further enhancements to the programs are needed to greatly influence the sustainable bridge community as a whole, but at this given time, the Mamdani Approach Model created is the best fit for determining the sustainability rating of a bridge project. The Mamdani Approach Model assesses the materials used in the project and the location of the project to determine a general sustainability rating. To further enhance this program along with the other programs created, it is recommended that the scope of the programs be expanded to other regions outside of Columbus, Ohio. Specific membership functions also need to be developed for application in the models, and additional variables could be added to the Mamdani Approach Model for enriched results. Another future recommendation would be to see how this research could be effectively incorporated in Greenroads. These enhancements will further develop the ideals of sustainable bridge design and will help demonstrate that sustainable designs are possible.